As for my methods of learning, I usually start out just getting my hands dirty in the field and end up latching on to some pattern/texture for future recognition. Once you start noting the subtleties of shapes and structures, it gets a little easier. I also have a field guide/key to vascular plants for my area.Posted 2 months ago

''Phegopteris hexagonoptera'', commonly called the broad beech fern, is a common forest fern in the eastern United States and adjacent Ontario. It grows from a creeping rootstock, sending up individual fronds that more or less clump.

The fronds are broadly triangular. The specific name ''hexagonoptera'' refers to the winging of leaf tissue along the rachis between the basal pinnae.

Sori are small, round and naked. This aspect of the plant has caused it in the past to be placed,.. more